


Natural

by darwinwithadifference



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers Family, Gen, Natasha Romanov Is Not A Robot, Natasha Romanov Needs a Hug, Non-Graphic Violence, POV Natasha Romanov, Post-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Pre-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Song Lyrics, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2020-10-13 07:35:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20578838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darwinwithadifference/pseuds/darwinwithadifference
Summary: Inspired by Imagine Dragons' "Natural". A character study (kind of) of Natasha.





	Natural

**Author's Note:**

> I was going to use the entire song, but I got this far and decided that this would work well. If you think I should do a part 2, tell me in the comments. Thank you for reading!

_Will you hold the line? When every one of them is giving up or giving in, tell me_

Steve and Wanda sprinted away from the truck about to crash into the warehouse they’d just evacuated. “Sam? Nat?” He yelled into his comms, scanning their surroundings as he and Wanda ran.

“Above you, Cap,” Sam replied, swooping down.

“Where’s Nat?” Wanda asked, panting.

Steve looked back and spotted a small figure jumping from a ground-floor window. A moment later, there was an enormous _crash_ and the air was filled with smoke and glass shards falling.

Natasha picked herself up and jogged towards them. Steve met her halfway and tucked an arm around her waist to support her.

“Why didn’t you leave when I told you to?” He demanded, glaring at the coughing redhead.

Brushing some hair from her face and smearing the blood from some scratches on her forehead as she did so, Natasha replied between gasps of air, “I was checking that everyone got out.”

_In this house of mine nothing ever comes without a consequence or cost_

A smallish girl in a black uniform tumbled to the floor. She immediately picked herself back up, wiped a hand under her nose to catch the blood, and faced the instructor approaching her.

“You obey _immediately_, Natalia. Do you understand?” He growled.

She nodded, the red hair that set her aside from her fellows swaying.

She was sent flying by another blow to the jaw.

_Tell me, will the stars align? Will heaven step in? Will it save us from our sin? Will it?_

Natasha had never believed in a god. She believed that good and bad were relative, and that people were responsible for their own actions.

That didn’t mean she didn’t know that her actions had been wrong.

_‘Cause this house of mine stands strong_

“You are made of marble.”

_That’s the price you pay, leave behind your heartache, cast away_

Starting to work for SHIELD had been… interesting, to say the least.

Learning to trust Agent Barton – Clint – and having safe quarters permanently, and being looked at as if she was a threat. She knew she was a threat, but her handlers in Russia had never shown fear; never given her a hint that they viewed her as anything more than a weapon that would do exactly and only what it was told to do.

The nightmares were the same, though.

_Just another product of today, rather be the hunter than the prey_

Natasha was the product of a system that had turned children into assassins to be used in the coming decades. Used, monitored, and ultimately discarded.

It was common enough for her to be followed on a mission, but she could never stop the freezing-cold moment of pure panic when she realised someone was after her: the hunter could never get used to being hunted.

_And you’re standing on the edge face up ‘cause you’re a natural_

She didn’t want to look too closely at the reason she’d broken into the theatre in the middle of the night.

Natasha eased herself down so she sat on the stage, feet dangling over the orchestra pit. From her backpack, she removed her ballet slippers. She’d never told anyone about them; she didn’t think anyone would understand why these inky-dark silk shoes meant so much.

She put them on with a speed born of practice and a much younger Natasha’s knowledge that if she wasn’t presentable, she probably wouldn’t eat that night.

Standing, she began to stretch.

“Natasha?”

In a moment, she had a pistol in her hand and pointed out into the dim theatre. She spotted a familiar figure getting closer and relaxed. “Why are you here, Wanda?”

The witch shrugged. “I could feel you were upset when you left the facility. I wanted to help.” She nodded to Nat’s shoes and cocked her head. “I would never have pegged the Black Widow for a dancer.”

“How do you think the Red Room taught us discipline and trained our bodies at the same time?” Natasha took a few experimental steps before settling into a familiar position. “It’s the only part of my … training I enjoyed. I excelled because, at heart, I like to perform. I’m a spy, sure, but I learnt that by becoming a dancer.”

_A beating heart of stone, you gotta be so cold to make it in this world_

Natalia didn’t have friends. Natasha didn’t either.

And then SHIELD and the Avengers happened… and now she had a family. Against every lesson she’d been taught or had beaten into her, she had a family that she wouldn’t give up for the world.

She was taught that love is weakness; love is something in a fairy tale. They’d thought they took away her capacity to choose love over obedience when she’d graduated. That she would succeed because she had nothing.

But now she had the Avengers.

_Yeah, you’re a natural._

Natasha wasn’t entirely sure of her nature. She didn’t know what was hers and what she had learned. For a long time, she thought that meant she had no personality of her own. No natural traits or abilities – just what the Red Room had given her.

But sitting in the living room in the Avengers compound, curled under a blanket with Wanda and throwing pieces of popcorn at the back of Steve’s head, she was starting to figure out what her nature was like. Watching a movie and jokingly exchanging insults with the people she’d risked her life with and for time and time again, Natasha knew that she was meant to be here with her family, because it felt as natural as breathing.


End file.
